


Best Laid Plans

by costumejail



Series: Danger Days Year 10 [10]
Category: Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys - My Chemical Romance (Album), The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys: California (Comics)
Genre: Foreshadowing, Gen, One Shot, Pre-SING (Music Video), Prompt Fill, teehee
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-13
Updated: 2020-11-13
Packaged: 2021-03-10 02:01:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,045
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27546514
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/costumejail/pseuds/costumejail
Summary: Jet turned to Cherri, concern written across their every feature. They knew what the sudden appearance of Bad Luck Beads meant. They knew maybe better than anyone else in the crew. Cherri blinked, for a second the shadows on Jet’s face had covered one eye. Almost as if they didn’t have it.
Relationships: Agent Cherri Cola & Jet Star (Danger Days)
Series: Danger Days Year 10 [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1995661
Comments: 16
Kudos: 20





	Best Laid Plans

**Author's Note:**

> Day 13 of the Danger Days Year Ten Celebration! Prompt was Bad Luck Beads.
> 
> I kind-of reference my other works in this one, mostly [Dying Is Easy](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25517968) but if you haven't read it it should still make sense!

The beads materialized out of nowhere. One moment, Cherri Cola was watching the ground in front of him, stepping carefully to avoid dropping the delicate supplies that he was carrying back to the Trans Am, the next he slowed to a stop, taking in the four bracelets that had appeared in a small whirlwind of sand.

He felt cold all over. The beads on his own wrist went hot.

“Cherri, What’s…” Jet Star rocked to a halt next to Cherri. They did drop the box they were carrying, but thankfully it wasn’t filled with anything breakable. “Where did those come from?”

“I— The— I was just walking,” Cherri took a deep breath. “They just... Showed up.”

“Are… Do you think they’re yours?”

Jet’s voice was hushed.

“I don’t—” Cherri swallowed thickly. “I hope not.”

A chill ran down Cherri’s spine, the barest whisper of a gravelly laugh came to him over the breeze and for a second, he saw the shadow of a feathered shape.

“Do you want me to check?”

Jet turned to Cherri, concern written across their every feature. They knew what the sudden appearance of Bad Luck Beads meant. They knew maybe better than anyone else in the crew. Cherri blinked, for a second the shadows on Jet’s face had covered one eye. Almost as if they didn’t have it.

Evidently, Jet took Cherri’s silence as a yes, and they stepped closer to the beads, skirting around the scattered supplies. As they knelt, Cherri snapped out of his trance and jerked forward.

“No!”

Jet froze, hand inches away from the bracelets.

“Don’t touch them! I’ll— I’ll take them.”

Like he wasn’t in control of his own body, Cherri stumbled towards Jet’s form and crashed to his knees next to them. He reached out, looping his fingers through all four strings before lifting them. Spare grains of sand fell from the bracelets as Cherri brought them up to his eyes. The beads were cool, or were they hot? They simply were. In the darkness, they looked black, but Cherri knew the deep brown of bad luck beads, the small carvings etched onto the silky surface that, try as killjoys had for years, no one had been able to replicate.

_Best laid plans, child._

The Witch’s voice echoed in Cherri’s ears as he peered at the bracelets. His stomach dropped as he caught sight of the strings laced through the beads. All of his worst fears confirmed.

Each string was a different colour. One red. One green. One purple. One yellow.

Stomach roiling, head swimming, ears ringing, Cherri pulled the purple string from the others and shakily held it towards Jet.

“Thi—” His tongue felt heavy. Despite nearly choking on them, the words kept coming, bubbling out of Cherri’s throat and burning every inch of it as they emerged. “This one’s for you.”

Silently, Jet took it. They slid it onto their wrist, where it nestled between commitment bands and knotted strips of fabric and worn strings of beads on black threads. The purple was bright, shocking against their dark skin when it peeked out between the beads.

The ‘joys stared at Jet’s wrist for a long time. What could be said? A gift from the Witch herself, Jet’s colour, the colours of all of their crewmates. Beads showed up when the Witch thought you needed them.

What was about to happen that all four of them needed beads?

Cherri recalled a clap half a moon earlier, a particularly close call that had left both Fun Ghoul and Party Poison laid up with a range of injuries so serious Ghoul had barely been able to walk for several days. At the time, they’d laughed. Cherri had ruffled Ghoul’s hair and pressed a kiss to it, saying that he’d ask the Witch to get Ghoul a string of beads if he was going to keep being ‘so damn distracted in a firefight’. None of them had taken it seriously, claps happened, injuries happened. If the same exterminator had been tracking them down for a year, how would they really notice between everything else that occupied their lives?

It all lined up now.

Jet let out a quiet sob and Cherri uncurled from his own knees. When had he even tensed up around himself?

Giving Jet plenty of time to fight him off, Cherri wrapped an arm around their shoulders. They pushed their face into his neck, shoulders shaking. Cherri didn’t feel any tears, but he ran a hand up and down Jet’s back.

Was it better or worse that the Witch had thought he didn’t need beads?

The moon rose higher in the sky, casting its cold light over the scene until, at long last, Jet pushed back from Cherri and bent their head.

“It’s just beads,” murmured Cherri. He hoped he was being reassuring. “It’s just beads.”

Jet didn’t say anything. A dark spot appeared on their shirt, growing just over their heart. Cherri tried not to stare but breathed a sigh of relief when the shadow moved off of Jet’s chest. 

“It’s not a promise. It’s just— Means you have to keep an eye out.”

Bad choice of words, maybe. Cherri hoped not.

“Yeah,” sniffed Jet. They looked up at Cherri and wiped their face. “We should— Party’s gonna get concerned... If we’re gone too long.”

“Yeah,” murmured Cherri. 

He pulled Jet into another hug, kissed the top of their head, their cheek as they pulled back. He stood, offering Jet a hand as they followed him up.

The drive back to the diner was quiet. The diner was quiet when they arrived. Party and Ghoul were already asleep, and when Cherri walked past the Girl’s room, he heard Kobra’s low voice, reading her a bedtime story as she giggled to herself.

Cherri wished Jet goodnight, knowing that they’d find better comfort curled in bed with Party and Ghoul than in the cold dining room. He leaned against the wall next to the Girl’s door for a while, eventually sliding down to sit next to it, leaning his head back and just listening to the sound of Kobra and the Girl, happy, not knowing what was in store for them.

He tangled the beads in his fingers and, somehow, fell asleep like that.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! Feel free to leave a comment or check out my [tumblr!](sleevesareforlosers.tumblr.com)


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